sign in sign up
<<
Home , Blume in Love, Susan Anspach

20 ARTS

federal City College artists

William Derrick—Preacher

Calvin tfatkins—Seated Figure

John Armstrong—Design II

Carol Ball—Fish

The large number of art classes now of- The exhibit grew out of a steadily grow- fered at FCC recalls the strides made since its ing and improving relationship between the beginning in 1968 when the art department con- NCFA and the FCC art department. An increase sisted of three faculty members and two rooms. in opportunities for black art students to work Today there are three well-equipped floors of in art institutions is precisely what young ART black art professionals and teachers feel is workshops and studios and ten faculty members who are trying, and apparently succeeding, in most needed to better prepare younger blacks inspiring their students with attitudes of for jobs in art that will permit them to be- hard work, discipline and no shortcuts. "For come part of the system which evaluates art. one thing," says art department chairman Chuck Chuck Young of FCC and others feel black input Art at FCC Young, "especially black students should rea- in major art institutions has for the most lize life is difficult. In some institutions part been on a one-shot basis, as for example ANDREA 0. COHEN the attitude of just doing your own thing has at the National Gallery, which reverted to be- done more harm than good, because your own ing an all-European museum after mounting its "FIVE Years Later," an exhibit of Federal thing may be no thing. You must find what's African exhibit. They feel qualified blacks City College student art'work now at the Dis- yours and develop it." must be given the opportunity to work on the covery Gallery of the National Collection of Of the five art majors FCC has graduated, administrative levels, so'that they can see to Fine Arts, demonstrates, among other things, one is now at Pratt, another at Catholic U, a it that black shows and black ideas are fed that in spite of its troubles FCC has developed third is studying commercial media techniques, into these institutions and appropriate black an art department which produces startlingly and a fourth is teaching ceramics on her own organizations are routinely called upon for ad- good results. This is a fine exhibit and cer- in her own neighborhood. There are also a num- vice in their fieldsiof expertise. For example, tainly compares favorably with student shows ber of students, like Don Simonson, who has many feel that although the National Portrait held at any institution' in this area. Among the a painting and lovely piece of sculpture in Gallery's current exhibit, "The Black Presence highlights of this exhibit are works by Cargie this exhibit, who started from scratch in art in the Era of the American Revolution" is a fine Vaughn, William Derricks, John Armstrong, Mich- when coming to FCC and now looks like he will one, the fact that a white person was asked to ael Drayton, Calvin Watkins and Don Simonson. become a first rate professional artist. The organize it was an insult tantamount t;o saying Included of course is some less than profes- majority of work in this exhibit derives from "adequate talent and knowledge does not exist sional work, but then some pieces were done as forms of black experience. There is, however, in the black community." class exercises for drawing, printmaking, sculp- as much variety in style and feeling tone as ture, paint ing, ceramic1 or sculpture courses. The NCFA is perhaps the only Washington you are likely to find in any group show. art institution which is beginning to take

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED

21 a first step toward giving blacks opportuni- knowledge they gained by teaching in local "We are right next door to ftie NCFA," ties to participate on an equal footing. Train- high schools. Several FCC art majors enrolled says Chuck Young. "We tell our students "go ing programs involving FCC students have gone in NCFA's decent training program and at least inside and find out how it really is there. a long way to teaching these students some- four are now guiding visitors from the schools It's yours' you pay taxes. Don't close the thing about the actual workings of a museum. and elsewhere through NCFA galleries. Such doors on yourselves.'" FCC students were involved in the NCFA's Dis- steps may be only a beginning, but can you cover Graphics program and then passed on the think of a better place to start?

full iconography -parking lots, law offices tent. has been a problem for me made of blue-tinted glass, magazine-ad kitchens, since the first time I laid eyes on her. Phy- glowing girls who believe in health foods and sically (she has Sandy Dennish features -friz- 'swinging' with the moronic intensity that zy blonde , pale, tight skin, spitty, pro- their grannies might have brought to Christian- tuding teeth) and critically (she's a very self- ity. The peripheral characters are immensely ish actress, always going for her own 'big mo- Angeleno — a hippie minstrel (the engagirtg ment1) she turns me off. But I must admit Ma- ), a good-natured, horny and zursky uses her as well here as he did Dyan slightly tragic divorcee (brilliantly played Cannon in Bob And Carol. When she plays and by Marsha Mason) and a very bored shrink. Ma- sings (badly) a folk song, with great, self- zursky himself shows up in a small part, though conscious 'sensitivity', she projects, a per- "B/ume in love" hardly to the same effect as his memorable cam- fectly recognizable kind of contemporary woman, JOEL SIEGEL eo in Alex. spawn of California but increasingly visible Little, offhanded' moments are exquistely at local encounter groups and art fairs. Her BLUHE In Love, the best American movie so • realized. There's a casual scene in which ex- character is not fully realized -Blume is the far this year, hasn't opened in Washington yet . husband, ex-wife and current lover, all slightly screenplay's focus -but a few Woman's Libbish and isn't scheduled to do so for a few weeks. stoned, invent a delightfully silly song. (Ma- chimes are sounded, disturbingly without e- However, this may be my last chance for a zursky is the only American director who seems nough of the usual Mazursky irony to set them while to recommend it to you. Blurne has re- to understand how grass is used socially.) Other off. The filmmaker isn't, by a country mile, ceived mixed reviews so far, including a pig- scenes take on a dangerous edge. The rape scene a liberator of women, and his uncharacteristic headed analysis by Stanley Kauffman in the New is unexpectedly violent, despite its comedic solemnity on the subject strikes a false, fad- Republic, and may not fare too well with local setting, as if to convey without cop-out the dish note. reviewers. Originality and talent have never essence of violation. Best of all, there are is, finally, a satisfying had an easy time of it, and director Paul Ma- richly ambivalent moments like the suddenly in- movie because it constantly refuses to settle zursky is prodigiously gifted with both. serted sequence of Mexican workers who appear for easy satisfaction. As in life, we are never Mazursky, who began as a member of the to be protesting something in a funny broken for a moment allowed to feel safe, or sure of Second city troupe, rose to fame as a writer English. As the scene continues, we gradually where we are or of what we are supposed to feel. (and subsequently, writer-director) of such realize that these are, in fact, actual Chavez Writer-director-producer Mazursky makes movies as I Love You Alice B. Toklas and Bob farmworkers pleading support for their cause. for the mind and feelings every bit as much And Carol And Ted And Alice. (His writing part- Alex and Blume, like so many of us, feel slight- as for the eye (Bruce Surtee's cinematography ner was Larry Tucker, the obese, bearded sing- ly guilty about their own success, somewhat is stunning), bringing to comnercial moviemaking ing madman of Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor.) ashamed of the shallowness of their commitment the kind of spontaniety that hasn't been around Although these conventional, commercial come- to social justice. Perversely, Mazursky loves since the Thirties and early Forties. Go see dies had moments of wit, nothing in them pre- to invent little moments which test our knee- it. pared us for Mazursky's first solo venture, the jerk liberal reactions. I can't think of any extraordinary , to my way to other filmmaker currently active who would thinking, the most inventive and exciting home- grown movie of this decade. (Tucker has screen- writing credit but, according to someone who worked on the film, had very little to do with M Touch of Class' the actual screenplay.) Despite a few enthusiastic reviews, Alex IN THE FIFTIES, Melvin Frank used to spec- died a fast death at the box-office and prompt- ialize in will-they-or-won't-they-screw come- ly vanished from sight. Its only local engage- dies like the rather pleasant The Facts of Life ment to date was as a second feature with a with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. A Touch of Class, Joe Cocker concert film. Mazursky and his star, Frank's current attempt to update that genre, Ellen Burstyn, tried to buy the picture back is a declasse disaster of impressive proportions. from M.G.M. and release it themselves, but In fact, I and a friend had to visit the Outer the Smiling Cobra said no.To date, Alex has Circle twice to sit through it once. A married had no engagements in Europe. The studio re- man (, as oafish here as he was in- fuses to release it. ventive in Blume) and a divorcee (Glenda Jack- Alex in Wonderland was Mazursky1 s highly son) spend the first half of the film trying autobiographical, comic account of the com- to get into bed, with cute little obstacles plexities of making it big in the bughouse of like a putt-putt rent-a-car and a muscle spasm -a tougher, more ironic version halting their progress. One good screw, of course, of Preston Sturges's great Sullivan's Travels. and they are in love. (The Screw is the Seven- It is the definitive portrait of the pleasures, ties ingredient, soon to be unscrewed, thanks absurdities and nightmares of hip to the Supreme Court.) In the last half of the life, painted lovingly from the inside. It film, the Great Love has to be sacrificed to also contains the most affecting and convinc- some sort of unspecified Greater Good. The for- ing portrayal of a modern marriage on film; mula is an old one; jerk the libido and then not just romance and fights, but the realities jerk the tears. of day-to-day coping and loving —colds, kids Characterizations are constantly being man- eating Ho-Hos in bed and a drowsy quickie at ipulated to accomodate the dumbest t.v. jokes sunrise. Lynn Alpert Brush at the Jacob's Ladder (a whore who thinks oregano is a social disease If M.G.M. hadn't dumped Alex on the market, and that sort of thing) which, added to the it would have found sufficient audience to re- think of devising a scene in which workers for sentimental moralizing and the grainy exterior turn its relatively modest cost. But the fail- a noble cause start out sounding like comedy photography and the bummer closing song, be- ure at the box-office has kept Mazursky inac- relief. (There was a similar scene in Alex - came nearly unbearable. Glenda Jackson is much tive for nearly three years. (If Blume fails a grade-school graduation play with kids pre- better than Segal, but a bit too sensibly dour commercially, the wait will be even longer tending to be Ghandi and Dr. King.) And yet I for this sort of claptrap. (She might be fine next time.) The good news is that Blume In can't think of a more important use of comedy in higher comedy, which requires her tart edge.) Love has been made almost without compromise. than this -the testing of our orthodoxies and A Touch of Clas_i (is the title meant to echo From the similarly punning title right through commitments. the lousy but still superior Doris Day virginity to the unique Angeleno ambiance, Blume picks I've rewritten the above paragrahps sev- comedy A Touch of Mink?) is being advertised as up right where Ajex left off. It's not quite eral times, and yet I'm still not very happy a return to the romantic comedies of the Thir- as good a picture -there's a framing story with this column. I was so entertained and ties. Sure, like Nixon is a return to Abe Lin- which doesn't really come off and an unsatis- absorbed by Blume that I lost my 'critical per- coln. A Touch of Class is blotched with finger- fying ending, presumably a last-ditch attempt spective' and, because the film isn't around, prints of the darkest Fifties, one era which I to make this wildly unconventional movie ap- I must rely on several-week-old memories of have no violent need to revisit. -j.s. pear familiar -but it is filled with wonder- the picture. Blume is too good and too quick ful things. for a reviewer to sit there planning his col- umn. (Most movies provide the opposite exper- BluiTie has a most unlikely premise. A young- ience. I could have written Mar and Peace while ish L.A. lawyer loses his wife when she dis- watching A Touch of Class and not have missed covers him having it off with his secretary. a thing.) Nevertheless, I did spot a few weak- 7/ie Last of Sheila' Only after the divorce does Blume realize how nesses, apart from the specious ending -which, much he loves Nina, but it is too late. He "THIS IS ONE big glossy piece of shit, incidentally, most reviewers are using to clob- that's what it is. . .God, those rehearsal tries everything to get her back. Finally, in ber the film. is allowed to in- frustration, he rapes her. The consequences_of meetings for two weeks. Going into the philo- dulge in still more of her white-whale hysteria, sophical implications of this piece of crap... the rape lead to something like a happy ending. and derails the action every time she shows up. Admittedly, this plot description doesn't sound A very faggoty mentality animates the script, But the rest of the cast is fine. George Segal, let me tell you. All the women are complete too promising, but plot isn't very important who is in danger of over-exposing himself in to the kind of movies Mazursky makes. fools." That's lan McShane describing to several ways these days, is an appropriately a Village Voice reporter his feelings about Apart from a framing story set in neurotic, driven Blume. Segal always manages (which allows for a devilish send-up of Vis- The Last of Sheila. He's dead right about the conti's truly dreadful Death in Venice), Blume to play his scenes against the expected*grain, movie, which was directed with lethal gloss takes place in Mazurskyland. L.A. appears in like the quirkily understated way he informs by and written, with great intri- his randy mistress that he is about to be impo- cacy and little intelligence or feeling, by

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED